Cancer epidemiologist John Potter to receive IARC Award

He will be honored and present a lecture at World Health Organization meeting Oct. 23

SEATTLE – Oct. 19, 2012 – Cancer epidemiologist John Potter, M.D., Ph.D., a senior adviser in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has been selected to receive a medal of honor from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer for his research contributions in nutrition, diet and cancer.

Potter will receive the IARC Medal of Honor Oct. 23 during a meeting to celebrate IARC Day in Lyons, France. The award ceremony will follow lectures by Potter and fellow award recipient Walter Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H., of Harvard University.

Potter notes that this award attests to the hard work and commitment of many colleagues, students and postdocs with whom he’s had the privilege of working for more than three decades.

Formerly director of the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, Potter is being recognized for his research on environmental and genetic risk and intermediate biology in colorectal, breast and pancreatic cancers. He chaired the international panel that produced “Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective,” the seminal 1997 report on the feasibility of reducing cancer through diet and other behaviors.

Potter co-leads the Asia Cohort Consortium, a multicenter consortium of cohort studies. He is also a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine and a professorial fellow at the Centre for Public Health Research at Massey University in New Zealand.

He has authored or coauthored more than 570 scientific papers, chapters and books.

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At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists – including three Nobel laureates – seek new and innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. The Hutchinson Center’s pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation led to the development of immunotherapy, which harnesses the power of the immune system to treat cancer with minimal side effects. An independent, nonprofit research institute based in Seattle, the Hutchinson Center houses the nation’s first and largest cancer prevention research program, as well as the clinical coordinating center of the Women’s Health Initiative and the international headquarters of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. Private contributions are essential for enabling Hutchinson Center scientists to explore novel research opportunities that lead to important medical breakthroughs. For more information visit www.fhcrc.org or follow the Hutchinson Center on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.